Before he turned his attention to directing, overseeing episodes of Glee, Grey’s Anatomy and Madam Secretary, Eric Stoltz forged an impressive career as an actor, starring in Mask, Some Kind Of Wonderful, Jerry Maguire and Pulp Fiction.
The latter film arguably features his most iconic big-screen moment. As Lance in Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic crime tapestry, Stoltz helps to save the life of Uma Thurman’s Mia Wallace. providing John Travolta’s Vincent Vega with the instructions and the equipment to give Mia the adrenaline shot to the heart that revives her from a drug overdose.
It is one of the most memorable scenes of one of the most popular films in movie history. Not that Eric Stoltz ever saw “Pulp Fiction’s” critical acclaim coming. I recently had the chance to talk to Stoltz about his second feature film as a director “Class Rank,” during which time I also asked him about “Pulp Fiction,” and whether or not he predicted its success.
“Nope. Not at all. It was relatively low budget. I think it was an $8 million budget. The script was over 200 pages long. I kept telling Quentin, ‘You’ve got to cut this script down. It’s too long.’ And he was like, ‘No, man. It’s gonna work, man. It’s gonna be great.’
“I would say, ‘Let’s see.’ Quentin thought it would work. Because he is a visionary. The rest of us were just having a good time.”
The “good time” everyone was having on the set of “Pulp Fiction” is Eric Stoltz’s abiding memory of the film.
“My memories of ‘Pulp Fiction’ are that it was just one giant party from start to finish in my head. It was the most fun anyone could have on a film.”
“From the beginning to the end it was just a crazy delight. It was a party with some of the craziest and most interesting people you could imagine spending time with. The memory of it is wonderfully ensconced in my brain.”
“Class Rank,” a comedy about two high schoolers trying to take over the school board, in now in theaters and On Demand.
